TODAY’S CLASH HITS HOME

Padres primed for Strasburg in game with big local flavor

Strasburg is 3-0 this season with a 1.64 ERA over seven starts and 44 innings.

He has given up only 30 hits with an opponents’ batting average of .195. He also has 51 strikeouts against 10 walks and allows just under one runner an inning.

Strasburg has the fourth-lowest ERA in the National League. He leads the league in strikeouts and ranks second in strikeouts per nine innings (10.4).

And he could have been a Padre.

The Nationals secured the first overall pick in the 2009 draft with a 59-102 record in 2008. The Padres finished with a 63-99 record. The difference was a three-game series in Washington, D.C., from Sept. 19-21. The Padres swept the “Strasburg Series.”

Instead of getting Strasburg with the first overall pick, the Padres got outfielder Donavan Tate with the third pick. For the record, Tate just came off the disabled list with low Single-A Fort Wayne, where he is hitting .205 in 22 games.

One other Padre has faced Strasburg as a professional. Yonder Alonso went against him in the Arizona Fall League in 2009 and had a single in three at-bats. “I don’t remember him that much, other than I got a seeing-eye single through the right side,” Alonso said.